Pagina's

Thursday, December 22, 2011

The video collective 33one3rd made a nice short movie about the Seeljocht project. A kind of 'making of'. What you see are short pieces of how we all roamed the island, recorded music there and how 33one3rd shot their images to the music. The film is set up in the same order as Seeljocht live on stage as well on the cd. Starting with Greg Haines and friends, then Piiptsjilling, then Heather Woods Broderick and Nils Frahm. There's live footage of Seeljocht on the stage in the wood during the Into The Great Wide Open festival on the island, containing live recordings of Piiptsjilling. A nice souvenir of a very special event. Definitely a highlight of 2011 for all of us musicians.

But enough of that! A new year, new plans, quite some special releases. First of all the return of Kleefstra|Bakker|Kleefstra. In 2009 we published KBK's first full length 'Wink'. It's follow-up 'Griis' will come out in February on 12" vinyl only. A Low Point release! Then a bit later there will be an album by the quartet Kleefstra|Pruiksma|Kuitwaard|Kleefstra, a very special release in an edition of less than a hundred. Then somewhat in spring we expect the fourth Piiptsjilling album in the format of a limited double 10" vinyl release on an exciting label. So beware! We also still expect Piiptsjilling's third album 'Molkedrippen' to be released on Spekk Records. It's already over a year late, so let's hope for the best...

Then a new ensemble the Kleefstra Bros are in is working on two albums at the same time. For something completely different that will be. One is already scheduled for the fall on one of our favorite record labels. This ensemble might also do a special live project. So keep an eye on the [r] for all this and more.

Last but not least we're planning to do some gigs with Celer, Machinefabriek and Kleefstra|Bakker|Kleefstra in March. There are already a few dates planned in The Netherlands. More opportunities are definitely welcome.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

The last weekend of November was great. Seeljocht on two exciting Dutch festivals, both times in packed church-buildings with lovely crowds.Greg Haines performing 'You Know How' with Piiptsjilling's Mariska Baars, Sytze Pruiksma and Peter Broderick. Piiptsjilling playing nice dark impro's and Nils Frahm turning his piece into human beat box with Peter Broderick. Nice reviews, the finest you can find on Fluid Radio, VPRO 3voor12 and KindaMuzik (both last ones are in Dutch).

The video above was made by Knynk, while we were setting up the stage on the Explore The North festival. There will be more footage, because the video-guys of 33one3rd will produce a kind of 'making of' with loads of material they shot during the residency on the isle of Vlieland and on all the three Dutch festivals Seeljocht was performed (Into The Great Wide Open, Explore The North, Le Guess Who).

For those interested in the Seeljocht cd, it is available again through this blog. It's € 12,- incl. worldwide postage. Mail me for an order. For those living in The Netherlands, you can also get the cd at the record stores Plato and King Kong.

Soon more news on some of the plans for the near future... 2012 that is, isn't it?

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

As mentioned on the [r] before, the Seeljocht-gang will hit two cool festivals in The Netherlands and then it's schluss. On Saturday the 26th of November we'll settle down in the 'Lutherse Kerk' in the city of Leeuwarden, for the Explore The North festival. Seeljocht will be performed between 20:50-22:20 h. This new festival also hosts a bunch of friends we make music with, like solo performances by Chris Bakker, Christiaan Kuitwaard and Gareth Davis (w. Leo Fabriek on drums).
Sunday the 27th the Seeljocht-crew will be present at the Le Guess Who?-festival in the city of Utrecht. Here we'll be playing the great 'Vredenburg Leeuwenbergh church' from 17:30-19:00 h. On the program of Le Guess Who? are far too many cool names to mention... Seeljocht is actually part of the RUMOR-fest that takes place as part of the festival.

Friday, November 18, 2011

On December 13th 2008 the Kleefstra Bros shared the stage with Sytze Pruiksma for the first time with a curious impro (video). A year later the three stepped into the Landscape Studio to make one afternoon of music, which lead to Deislieper, the first album by Kleefstra|Pruiksma|Kleefstra.

The album contains five pieces, all uncut impro's, in which percussion, bird whistles, bells, cymbals, experimental as well as melodic guitar and spoken word float together, whirling around eich other, taking its time. Deislieper is published by Hibernate Recordings. The art work is done by Ian Hazeldine, based on the brilliant high key pics by Ruurd-Jelle van der Leij. The album off course contains a booklet with the spoken words in Frisian, plus translations. In the release section you can see where it is available. Of which getting it through the [r] is a very good option! And in the listening section you can find three tracks (scroll down a bit). This is what Fluid Radio said about it.

Meanwhile the trio is involved in more recordings, that will probably lead to some exciting other releases... More about that someday. First Deislieper. Play it loud!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

On the Frisian filmfestival in the town of Leeuwarden the new movie 'Bohai Bay' will be shown. Bohai Bay is the tidal area near the Chinese city Beijing, where nature is threatened and partly destroyed by industrial expansion. The area is an essential stepping stone for migratory birds between their Siberian breeding grounds and teir Australian wintering areas. Multi percussionist Sytze Pruiksma went to Bohai Bay for filming. Poet Elmar Kuiper edited the material to an epic trilogy in which the relation between human and nature is essential. There is music and poetry in the movie by Kleefstra|Bakker|Kleefstra with Nils Frahm, Greg Haines, Sytze Pruiksma and others, recorded live on January 9th 2011 in theater Lawei in the town of Drachten. More info (in Dutch) here. You can see 'Bohai Bay' on November 12th in theater Harmonie in Leeuwarden.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

This year's seen quite some of our releases. The European release of Piiptsjilling's Wurdskrieme in January, the Mort Aux Vaches featuring Kleefstra|Bakker|Kleefstra in February, the Sieleslyk ep with Gareth Davis in April, the Seeljocht cd as part of a great artist in residence project in September, Deislieper of Kleefstra|Pruiksma|Kleefstra and Piiptsjilling's Molkedrippen coming up... And recently Tongerswel came out. All the lovely reactions we got on 'the other sound' of the album are good to hear and read. There are also some nice reviews so far, like on Fluid Radio, Resonant Strata and Ambientblog. If you are curious where to get the album, check the releases page. For eich release it is mentioned where it is available. Meanwhile we are working on quite a few new albums/projects. More about that later. Beware.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Hibernate Recordings set the date for the release of Deislieper, the first album by the Kleefstra Bros with multi percussionist Sytze Pruiksma from The Netherlands. Deislieper's out on November 18th. Hibernate already uploaded the opening track of the album on Soundcloud, so have a listen.
Sytze is involved in more projects that we're doing. First of all there is Seeljocht, which you can check out at two cool Dutch festivals late November. Then we made some awesome recordings with a kind of international super group of instant composers in Berlin in August. A great deal of these recordings will probably be released next year. So beware... And then we are working on some exciting plans sprouting from the Seeljocht-experience. More on all of this later! First a bit of Deislieper!

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Seeljocht returns! On November 26th and 27th the Seeljocht-gang will play the new Explore The North Festival in the city of Leeuwarden respectively the Le Guess Who Festival in the city of Utrecht. Besides Piiptsjilling the team consists of Peter Broderick, Nils Frahm, Greg Haines, Sytze Pruiksma and the video collective 33one3rd. So unfortunately no Heather Woods Broderick this time. On both fests we probably perform in a church.
The program for Explore The North contains for instance Johánn Johánnson with Hildur Gudnadóttir, while Le Guess Who has even more of my personal favorites on the bill such as Low, Panda Bear with Sonic Boom, Akron/Family, The Besnard Lakes and did I already mention Low?
For those wishing they had a copy of the lovely Seeljocht cd, you can order it by mailing me (€ 12 worldwide incl. postage, check contact).

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Experimedia published a very, very limited cd-r label sampler with recent and forthcoming releases on the Experimedia. It features Piiptsjilling with Unkrûd, the opening track of the album Wurdskrieme. But there's also awesome material on it by Aaron Martin, Lüüp, Celer, Lawrence English, Black Swan and many others. The sampler is mainly for promotion, but it's an excellent compilation, which everyone can listen to through Soundcloud. So here you go, play loud.

Monday, September 26, 2011

In November 2010 Kleefstra|Bakker|Kleefstra played six gigs in Tokyo. One gig was a collaboration with filmmaker Shinkan Tamaki, playing live music to new work of his at the Uplink Factory. In the months after the collab Shinkan edited the film a bit more, send it to The Netherlands, where Kleefstra|Bakker|Kleefstra recorded music to it. That's actually how this Japanese film now has a Frisian title, called 'Nacht en Dei', based on the words by Jan Kleefstra.Nacht en Dei is a minimal piece of art, slowly moving from dark to light, like the break of day. With it the music grows to a climax, in which the sea bursts through the light. You can watch a excerpt on Vimeo and here's some still images. Where and when Nacht en Dei will be posted here on [r] and on Shinkan's blog.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

From September 20th until 25th the Approximation Festival takes place in Düsseldorf. Great names on the bill for every night. Steve Reich is opening the fest on September 20th, Kleefstra|Pruiksma|Kleefstra is closing it together with Greg Haines as a quartet on Sunday 25th. The quartet will play in Salon Des Amateurs, 21.00h sharp. Be there!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

On [r] already a lot about the Seeljocht-project was written and introduced, like the lovely teasers one, two and three by 33one3rd, featuring Greg Haines and Piiptsjilling. Seeljocht live, at the Into The Great Wide Open festival, was a fine trip, a very fine trip. On Friday the 2nd of September we presented the three Seeljocht pieces live on the lovely stage in the woods. The place was pretty packed with about 700 people, listening and watching Seeljocht in silence. On Flickr some pictures of the show give you a good impression. KindaMuzik, Kicking The Habit and especially VPRO’s 3voor12 wrote some nice words about Seeljocht live.

On Sunday the 4th Seeljocht reached its climax in the old (and packed) church of Vlieland with a kind of live residency. Peter Broderick opened the afternoon with an acoustic piano song, Sytze Pruiksma joined him and continued solo with an impro, followed up by a fine piece of Nils Frahm with a combination of piano and synth. Piiptsjilling then took over with a haunting piece. Greg Haines joined the band and continued with a fine piano piece. Heather Broderick finished the performance with a thrilling version of her song Wounded Bird. The crowd gave all residents a standing ovation, which led to an encore with all residents. What an afternoon!

Again VPRO’s 3voor12 wrote a lovely review of Seeljocht in the church and on Flickr there are some nice pics of the afternoon. Also FileUnder was pretty praiseful about the church happening. There are also interviews about the project on YouTube and Soundcloud. Note that all of this is mainly in Dutch.

Then last but not least, [r] has got the Seeljocht cd for sale for only € 12, incl. world wide postage. Just send a message for order.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Together with Heather Woods Broderick, Peter Broderick, Nils Frahm, Greg Haines and Sytze Pruiksma Piiptsjilling is artist in residence for the Into The Great Wide Open festival on the Dutch isle of Vlieland (September 2nd-4th). Check here for more information. The project, called Seeljocht, contains a cd with three tracks. This cd will be available at the festival in a limited edition of 500 copies. If there are copies left, we'll try to get a few for sale on the [r]. Meanwhile you can already listen to the tracks on Soundcloud.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Already announced for quite some time, but out now! Tongerswel, the first full length album by Davis|Kleefstra|Kleefstra, published by Home Normal. Tongerswel was recorded quite a while ago, when we first met as a trio in the Landscape Studio in the Netherlands. Two winter afternoons of recording, all improvisation. Six of these impro tracks ended up on Tongerswel. Sparse guitar sounds facing an almost dreamy bass clarinet, here and there spoken words. You can order Tongerswel through the Home Normal shop and through a lot of shops and distribution (check here). And off course [r] has got some copies too.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

August 19th Kleefstra|Pruiksma|Kleefstra will perform live in the hold of the ship Het Schip De Lading, which is being built by the artist Marten Winters on the square of the former prison Blokhuispoort in Leeuwarden. It's a exclusive, free gig for an intimate crowd (only 35 places available per gig). It starts at 20.30h. For more information you can contact me.
The special gig in Leeuwarden forms the kick off of an indian summer and autumn of cool events. The trio will record new material with some friends in Berlin, is involved in the artist in residence project Seeljocht for the Into The Great Wide Open festival on Vlieland (the Kleefstra's with Piiptsjilling, Pruiksma with Greg Haines), will play the Approximation Festival in Düsseldorf with Greg Haines and the first album 'Deislieper' will be published by Hibernate Recordings this fall. So, if you are somewhere near Leeuwarden on the 19th, come, see and meet us at Het Schip De Lading!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Meanwhile... all participants in the artist in residence project Seeljocht for the Into The Great Wide Open festival are working together on making it a great piece of work. All three music pieces by Piiptsjilling, Greg Haines and Heather Broderick/Nils Frahm are finished. These three pieces make an awesome release, which is available in a limited edition at the fest. If there are copies left after the festival, [r] will let you know.

Piiptsjilling's Rutger made a sound postcard Greetings from Seeljocht for Headphone Commute not so long ago with some field and studio recordings he made during the residency week on the isle of Vlieland. Better listen to that one. The video guys of 33one3rd made another Seeljocht teaser (see video) and are working on all the images to fit the music pieces for the performances on stage.

Seeljocht will be performed live on a very fine stage in the woods of Vlieland on the Friday evening of the festival. We will also do a kind of live residency in the old church of Vlieland on the Sunday. More about that later. Stay tuned!

Friday, July 15, 2011

The release of the album Tongerswel by Davis|Kleefstra|Kleefstra on Home Normal is set for August 11th!

Kleefstra|Pruiksma|Kleefstra will kick off some special matters with a small show in a ship on the square of the former jail Blokhuispoort in the city of Leeuwarden (NL) on Augustus 19th. The special matters? More about that later.

For the Seeljocht-project a very very very special limited release with three tracks by Piiptsjilling, Greg Haines plus friends and Heather Woods Broderick with Nils Frahm will be published by the Into The Great Wide Open Festival. So keep your eyes on the [r] for leftovers.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Sadfully Peter Broderick couldn't come because of illness (he's better now and coming to the festival in September). Still, it was a very good week. With Martyn Heyne as our sound engineer we recorded nine pieces. One of these will be used for the Into The Great Wide Open festival in September. All the other music will probably be used for future releases (insert smiley here!).

The 33one3rd video guys did some incredible filming with beaming pictures and video on the dunes in the middle of the night and filming that. Watch one of the teasers they made for the Seeljocht-blog. Greg Haines made one of the weirdest popsongs ever, featuring Piiptsjilling's Mariska Baars (vocals) and our friend Sytze Pruiksma (drums). Meanwhile Heather Broderick and Nils Frahm are recording on location during their stay in the USA. It's all so good!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Piiptsjilling is artist in residence for the Into The Great Wide Open Festival on the Dutch Wadden Sea island Vlieland. The festival takes place in the first weekend of September and is already sold out. Piiptsjilling is staying on the island from June 19th until June 26th to make and record new music, influenced by the island and the Wadden Sea. The groop is bringing Heather Woods Broderick, Peter Broderick, Nils Frahm and Greg Haines. The project is called 'Seeljocht' (light of the sea). There will be videos made to the music and all this will be presented live at the festival and on a cd, which is available at the festival. Besides all this 'Piiptsjilling and friends' will probably do a kind of live residency at the festival too. You can keep up with the Seeljocht project on the special project site.

Friday, June 3, 2011

A new collection of poems by Jan Kleefstra has been released together with the South African poet Floris Brown in a double booklet. The poems of Jan Kleefstra are written in the Dutch language. The poems of Floris Brown are written in the original Afrikaans language. The split collection of poems brings two poets together who live thousands of miles away from each other.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

On March 18th Davis|Kleefstra|Kleefstra played at the venue Havenkwartier in the Dutch town of Deventer. This show will be broadcasted by the internet channel Concertzender on June 2nd, 20.00-21.00 o'clock (Mid European Time). It will be repeated on June 10th and 21st at 15.00-16.00 o'clock (also M.E.T.). Go here for listening and reading more about it (in Dutch). And on Vimeo you can watch a part of the gig. Beware.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

No gigs or tours for a while, but there is some good stuff coming up in the next few months. Some releases and a very special Piiptsjilling-project:

Piiptsjilling - Molkedrippen (cd)
The third Piiptsjilling album will be released by Spekk Records. Recorded during the same session days as the album Wurdskrieme.

Davis|Kleefstra|Kleefstra - Tongerswel (cd)
The postponed, first album with Gareth Davis will be published soon on Home Normal.

Kleefstra|Pruiksma|Kleefstra - Deislieper (cd)
The first release with multi percussionist Sytze Pruiksma will be a very nice album on Hibernate Recordings.

Seeljocht
Piiptsjilling will be the artist in residence during the Into The Great Wide Open festival on the Isle of Vlieland in the Dutch Wadden Sea. For this project, called 'Seeljocht', the band is bringing some friends along. A very fine project, including new music, video, a release containing cd and dvd, and off course Piiptsjilling and friends live on the finest stage of the festival on September 2nd-4th. More about Seeljocht later!

Anything else? Yes, off course. Recordings with Kleefstra|Bakker|Kleefstra for a Japanese film, other recordings with a small kinda big band in Berlin, something with a boat maybe and hopefully quite some gigs with Sytze Pruiksma here, there and everywhere. Stay tuned.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Piiptsjilling and Greg Haines will perform at the Easter party of the Into The Great Wide Open Festival on the Isle of Vlieland this Sunday (April 24th). At four o'clock in the afternoon Piiptsjilling will play at the venue Podium Vlieland. The Easter party is a kinda mini version of the actual festival in the first weekend of September (2nd-4th). Piiptsjilling will perform there too.

Monday, April 11, 2011

The 3" Sieleslyk by Davis|Kleefstra|Kleefstra is out on the subscription based hybrid netlabel Rural Colours. We recorded the material for this mini already in 2009. More music from this same recording session will be published soon on a full length by Home Normal. Go to the Rural Colours site for further information on Sieleslyk.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Angelige Noaten is the title of the impro by Peter Broderick, Machinefabriek, Kleefstra|Bakker|Kleefstra and Nils Frahm, which is published on the Mort Aux Vaches. For ordering the Mort Aux Vaches check the releases-page on this blog, to see where it's available.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The VPRO radio program Dwars broadcasts a Kleefstra|Bakker|Kleefstra portrait, which includes an exclusive session and an interview with Jan Kleefstra and Chris Bakker (in Dutch). This portrait is streamed on the internet. Go here for the portrait. If you want to listen to the session without the interview check this link.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

October the 5th of 2009 Kleefstra|Bakker|Kleefstra met up with Peter Broderick, Nils Frahm and Machinefabriek in Studio Desmet in Amsterdam and recorded a mega-session for VPRO's Dwars. This mega-session, titled 'Angelige Noaten' is out now, part of the very fine Mort Aux Vaches-serie of Staalplaat. Besides the mega-session it contains two impro's by Peter Broderick and Machinefabriek. You can order this Mort Aux Vaches here.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Kleefstra|Pruiksma|Kleefstra is added to the program of the CTM11 festival in Berlin. We'll be playing the HBC Palais Wittgenstein on February the 5th, together with Greg Haines and Library Tapes (the renaissance of contemporary chamber music performance practice, curated by Marc Weiser). The HBC has a very fine program from February 2nd up to February 5th, containing Simon Scott, Svarte Greiner and Markus Fjellström on the 2nd, Ryan Francesconi and James Blackshaw on the 3rd, Hauschka and Hildur Gudnadottir on the 4th and our eve on the 5th. Check the whole program here.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

On October 5th 2009 Kleefstra|Bakker|Kleefstra recorded a live session for the VPRO Radio programm Dwars. That same afternoon Peter Broderick and Machinefabriek recorded a session and Peter brought Nils Frahm along. A nice opportunity to do a mega session all together. That mega session is now online on the Dwars site (where Kleefstra|Bakker|Kleefstra is called Wink...). We named this live piece 'Angelige Noaten' and will be published by Staalplaat as part of their fine Mort Aux Vaches serie.